Yoga Teacher Training Review :
300hours YTT in Vikasa Retreat
Why Vikasa?
Koh Samui is my favourite island in Thailand. The overall vibes here is chill. I went there 10 years ago to have my first ever Yoga retreat. Vikasa was one of my best options because of it’s spectacular ocean view. However, it was a bit pricy for me (it’s still pricy for me now :)) so I picked a smaller retreat finally. But Vikasa has my heart. Through the last decade, I have always had a feeling that I would be there someday. That’s the call of my 300 hours teacher training.
Meal
This was a 5-week-long physical and mental demanding training program. Nutritious yummy food is super important for me to stay focused and energetic. Luckily, our “canteen” , Life Cafe, is one of best restaurants I have had in my life.
How life in Vikasa - What we eat
Life Cafe serves us 2.5 meals daily.
9:30am : Brunch
3:30pm : Snack
7pm : Dinner
Both brunch and dinner service with a semi-buffet, plus our choices of egg or set main course in dinner respectively. The smell of the toast & coffee from the cafe sometimes wakes me up from Savasana during the morning practice. I especially love adding honey and butter to the sourdough toast, and DIY my cereal bowl with sliced fruit and different kinds of seeds. I ate them for 35 days without feeling bored.
For dinner, the main course was serviced with a rotation of Vegan, Vegetarian and Pescatarian. You can request to stick to a certain meal plan if needed. One rotation takes around 10-12 days. We simply name it as “Italian night”, “Thai night” or “Middle East night” etc. So guess what’s my favourite “night” ?
Not kidding, I love all of them, particularly the fried snapper, prawn masala, fired tofu ball, Thai style fired morning glory and cool soup w/ blended mixed veggie etc…yum yum!
If I fancy a proper coffee or a snack ball in the middle of the day, I will need to pay extra. The cafe services a wide range of coffee, tea, tea latte and smooth. Since I have 5 weeks there, I have plenty of time to try different options. I try all the options of smoothies. The seasonal jackfruit blend is signature. Also, their Mocha latte is one of the best I had.
Basically, I have no complaints. But if I must say one thing that they can do better, which is to increase the variety of the slide fruit serviced in the brunch. There are always watermelon, pineapple and papaya during the period of my stay.
Room
Vikasa retreat is built on the mountain instead of level ground. Their entrance, front desk and cafe are located on the “top of the mountain”, facing to the street for the easiest access. Almost all rooms are located along the mountain. How do we access to our room? STAIRS! The room closest to the ocean, the deeper down the mountain, the more stairs you need to climb.
How life in Vikasa - Accommodation
My room is my private world for me to rest after everyday’s training. There are 4 types of room Vikasa offers :
Yoga cave
Zen Bungalow
Prana Cabana
Lotus Pad
Interesting that I have first-hand experience of staying in both Yoga Cave and Prana Cabana because I had changed my room once during the first week of the training. Let me share with you their pros & cons.
Yoga Cave
+Located closest to the Life Cafe and the Black Shala, where we eat and practice everyday.
-No in-room sink, need to share bathroom and toilet.
The Yoga cave is configured with a single bed, a mini chiller, air-con and mini balcony. Basically, the room is a square which is spacious for a single person. I place my own yoga mat on the floor and I still have space to move around.
1 min walking distance only from my cave to the Black Shala and cafe, I can go back for a nap during the brunch break to recharge before the afternoon session. The balcony facing to the ocean, I can see a little sunrise (depends on which direction your balcony facing to) before I go out for morning practice at 6:30am. I especially love to see the moon hanging just on top of my balcony when the sky is clean. Everyday’s view is different but always poetic. This is the little cozy cave for me to shut down and to enjoy the quiet after a whole day's training and socialization.
However, what makes me frustrated, is there is no in-room sink, bathroom and toilet. All these facilities have to share. They are clear and sufficient. But imagine you wake up at midnight to go to the toilet, you have to put on your shoes, remind yourself to keep the key card with you (since there is no staff in the front desk after 9pm, not sure how long you have to wait outdoors till someone comes to rescue you if you leave your room card) and to go upstair. I totally woke up and I hardly kept up the quality of sleep afterwards.
Particularly when I get sick in the first week, I know I have to drink more water for better recovery, but I try to avoid going to the toilet at night. I was struggling a bit with this situation. This is the main reason why I request to change room.
+30s walking distance to access the private beach. Queen size bed, larger balcony facing to the beach with furniture, in-room bathroom and toilet.
-Located at the other side of the retreat, 4 mins stairs walking to the top + 2 mins walking on the street to reach the main retreat area.
Prana Cabana
This is my dream room. The dream I had in the last decade. It is next to a private beach and equipped with everything I need. Since I moved there, I feel like I can finally settle down. Even though it takes a longer time and more stairs to reach the main retreat area, the whole experience is worthwhile. Changes the perspective, stair climbing trains my legs and cardio well. Why not? My body really becomes stronger on the day I leave.
Except.. in those weeks, my body was exhausted from the training so much. I usually don’t go back to my room in the middle of the day, because each turn around burns out much of my energy. Instead I will rest a bit on the Shala during the break. And to make sure I bring everything like clothes to change and notebook etc with me for the whole day of training.
The most impressive part for me about living in this house was when the storm came over. As a city girl who has never lived so close to nature, it was definitely an unforgettable experience. The wave crazily boomed, the sound loud enough to pull me out from the dream. I found that the ocean is a super amplifier. While the thunder is on top of it, the sounds are loud and the echo is deep like crossing alone from the other end of the ocean to the front of my house. And, the rain is not just heavy, it is rather like a waterfall just on top of my house.
There are some moments, I wonder if I’m in danger. A sneak peak of the power of nature. Absolutely no kidding.
Let me slightly touch the other 2 types of room as I heard about them from my classmate. Zen Bungalow and Lotus Pad, both of these rooms need a lot of climbing stairs, and are equipped with an in-house bathroom and toilet too. The former one is actually the room Vikasa rents from the neighbouring hotel, Merit. I’m not sure if there is a sea view. Lotus Pad belongs to Vikasa, near to the pool, like the house in the jungle. I heard my classmate say that it was quite damp. The walls are all wet once the air-con turns off. Also, some of the Lotus Pad rooms are quite far away from the sea view or the view was blocked by the trees.
Next time when I go back, I think I will still choose to stay in Prana Cabana. The last reminder from me to you is, having hot water for a shower is sometimes luck. Good luck!
Training
Come to the core part of the review, the training. It’s 5 weeks, 300 hours. Advanced Yoga Teacher Training covers asana practice, theory, philosophy, and workshop. Schedule from Monday to Saturday, 7am-7pm, Sunday off.
What our day looks like
This is the schedule for week 3. Just give you an idea what our day looks like. The daily schedule is kinda “chill” in my eyes. For a typical citizen who grows up and works in Hong Kong, there is at least a 15-30 min break between sessions. But when it comes to 6 days in a roll and continues for 5 weeks, this is another level of intensity.
Week 3, the middle of training, is the toughest week for us mentally, and physically, because we have strong inversion practice every single day.
Teaching Team
This Advanced Teacher Training is led by a total of 7 teachers. I didn’t know most of them beforehand except Rama and Shakti. But I have to say I love all of the teachers. They have significantly different backgrounds and teaching styles. But they are professional, honest and passionate in their own scope. The program is flexible enough to take care of us. For example, during the middle of the training, most of our vibes are so low and we are physically exhausted.
The team decided to replace the strong cross-mat Universal Yoga morning session with Restorative Yoga. Also, they take the “pranayama and mediation” session away from the morning practice so we can sleep one more hour to begin the physical practice at 8am instead of 7am. Even just 1 or 2 days, these tiny adjustments do save our life there.
Classmates
My classmates, almost 40 individuals, come from all over the world, like USA, Japan, Brazil, Thailand, Switzerland, Norway, Italy, Australia, Germany, Egypt, Russia and Dubai etc. Age from 20s to 50s. I do have experience of being with people in different nationalities but I never have a chance to stay with those beautiful people for 5 weeks long to train, to eat, to dance, to experience ups & downs together. It was a bit odd to meet such a large group of stranger at the beginner. Plus, I have difficulty remembering their names as some of their pronunciation is not English. While we spend each brunch, dinner and group activity together, we become a team, some of them become my angels.
I would say 99% of us are helpful and considerate. There is no competition but appreciation among us. We love to hug each other to show our love when our partner service us in the partner yoga session, when someone get lost during the meditation, or when someone cry to releases their burden after the gong bath session. If we don’t know how to do something, we can just ask for help in person or in our group chat. This vibes is so different from my local Yoga community. For me, this is the “advanced” level of Yogi : open mind to new stuff and to people who are different from us. As you can imagine, we have different cultures, backgrounds and experience of teaching, but we respect each other a lot. I feel so comfortable to be myself in this group. A transformative learning experience sometimes not only comes from the teachers or the training but from everyone.
What inspires me the most
Here I try to be real, as a partitioner who practicing regularly for a decade and teaching full time for 6 years with continuous education each year. I can still learn a bit of new stuff from the “technique part” of the training, like asana practice, hands-on adjustment and anatomy. They are a good reversion for me. But, the Philosophy and Experience session are unexpectedly inspiring to me. They makes me feel like in a different level of learning.
Philosophy class led by Alex. Modules cover Yoga history, Yoga Sutra, Bhagavad Gita, Tantra etc. Some of them are covered by my 200YTT, but they are delivered to a much mire deeper level from what I had learned. Because the content is based on traditional Yoga text and scripture. And Alex himself is not just a meditation and philosophy teacher but a real partitioner. He demonstrates how to live modern life in a yogi way. He explains complex concept in a causal and ease way. And he answers a lot of our questions regarding life and yoga practice. It not just teaching a subject but share a accessible way of living yoga in life.
Experience session led by Micheal and Niki. Simply speaking, these sessions aim to offer us a transformative experience besides asana, such as active Chakra mediation and Kunsalini mediation etc. Through activating, transforming, releasing and meditating our own energy in order to access the deep inner self.
These practices are advanced for me.
It needs me to pull my ego away in order to move my body freely for 20 mins while I’m not a dancer. To create some strange sound for 15 mins, or to scream and hit the pillow for 15 mins etc.
I have to stay focused for a long period of time as most of the movements are repetitive, such as keep shaking with hand over head for 20 mins.
They are physically demanding (in order to activate and release energy) .
They are not in the main stream of Yoga practice in HK, but I’m so glad to have the chance to experience them. At the same time, clean up my own burden and energy block.
For me, learning is not limited to what’s officially covered by the syllabus. I learn a lot from my classmates regarding their culture. I learnt how Vikasa hosts a successful training and retreat. I find out what resonates with me in Yoga practice right now after a decade of practice and how to involve this element in my own teaching. Basically, I learn from the whole experience. This is the reason why I invest a lot of resources in making this trip a success.
Conclusion
Investment
How much should you expected to spend to receive YTT in Vikasa.
I’m showing you how much I invest to receive the training there. I didn’t cover flight ticket as it really depends your location and season. The price range of accommodation may vary subject to season and availability. You will need to select the room you want with a confirmed price when you sign up.
300YTT course fee : USD4500
Prana Cabana (the room l stay) : USD 2240
*Room price covers meal plan
A la cart coffee, tea, fuzzy drink, smoothies : THB90-220
Snack bar : THB90-120. I order an extra drink / snack and, on average, spend THB200 per day.
Umbrella in-room : THB500/one (if you lost it when check out)
Key card : THB500/one (if you lost it and need to reapply)
Cost breakdown
Travel tip
Share with you my personal experience when travelling to Koh Samui, special stay in Vikasa retreat for training or simply enjoying a yoga holiday.
If you take Vikasa’s YTT, the package includes an airport pick-up service. It takes around 30 mins of travel time. While you leave, you can ask the front desk to arrange a car to the airport. Cost around THB600.
For 300YTT, you will need to stay 5 weeks in Thailand (200YTT-4 weeks). Please make sure whether you need a Visa for that.
You can ask the front desk to arrange a car for somewhere on your day-off. But it would be great if you had mates to share. Or I usually just get a taxi (around THB150-200) / song-tale (public transportation, around THB100-150), take around 8 mins to the nearest Tesco mall. This is a EU-sized super mall with everything I need. A lot of restaurants and massage shops near by.
If you have plans to go far away, you can also visit the city centre or Fishman Village.
A mini family mark is opposite to Vikasa, they can arrange laundry for you at a cheaper price (THB50/KG) compared to Vikasa (THB150/KG). But I like to do laundry in the neighbouring hotel, Merit, because it makes my clothes smell so good.
Upon departure from Samui, make sure you arrive at the airport 1.5h / even 2h earlier if your flight departure is at peak time. As almost all the travellers have to queue up in the same line to check-in Bangkok Airway counter. The airline didn’t set priority for passengers who take the nearest flight.
After check-in, there are some nice restaurants and shops in the airport. You can spend some time there.
Thing you need to know
Bouns
Thank you for reading this till the end. I spend a lot of time summarising it. For those who are interested in receiving YTT in Vikasa, in order to send you my blessings and support you in your journey, I’m so glad to share my discount code here :
Simply state my name “Christine Sit” in the “comment” session
OR
under the Q : “How did you find out about the course:
You will enjoy USD100-off when you settle the full-payment invoice. Hope you enjoy and find it helpful with this article. All the best on your journey.
*Discount cannot use as conjunction of other promotion.
Christine Sit
Christine Sit